High caloric intake has been associated with various concerns, such as weight gain, leading to health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As consumers become more health and weight conscious, the calorie contents of foods are increasingly becoming a significant consideration. Food manufacturers have marketed wellness foods with low-calorie ingredients to attract health and weight conscious consumers. A significant market now exists for reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie foods.
However, reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie foods tend to lack flavor due to low sugar content or low perceived sweetness. Manufacturers have tried to counter this problem by adding high amounts of artificial sugar substitutes and flavorings to make the food taste more like full-calorie products. For example, artificial high-intensity sweeteners, e.g., sucralose, aspartame, saccharin and acesulfame-K among others, have been used to deliver sweetness in reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie beverages. However, certain artificial ingredients are believed to cause serious health problems and hence are not well-received by consumers. Consumers are especially concerned in the case of children consuming food products having artificial sweeteners. Consumers have become increasingly wary of artificial ingredients and are looking for natural ingredients, that is, ingredients distilled, extracted, concentrated or similarly obtained from harvested plants and other naturally occurring sources, with limited or no further processing.
Furthermore, use of artificial sweeteners produces an off-taste or lingering bitter aftertaste, resulting in beverages which have a different quality of sweetness than full-calorie beverages. In addition, mouthfeel of reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie beverages is typically “thin” or “watery” due to removal or lack of addition of sugars and/or other solids. So there is perceived market demand for beverages having good flavor profiles, including good taste, mouthfeel, flavor impact, etc.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide naturally sweetened reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie beverages without the negative characteristics of conventional reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie beverages. It is an object of at least certain embodiments of the present invention to provide reduced calorie, light, or low-calorie juice beverages having natural non-nutritive sweeteners. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention or of certain embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following disclosure and description of exemplary embodiments.